Tag Archives: action

I’ve worked with the concept of “nature’s support” since the 70’s and have come to perceive the mechanics. I’ve written on the topic before, but sometimes more obscurely. The subject came up on Choice and Surrender and it became clear I needed to say more. When you put your attention on something or act towards it, is this movement supported or not? Do you get smooth and easy results or obstacles? Where are results happening? In the direction intended or over to one side? Nature in this case refers to the world – the environment and others. How is what … Continue Reading… →

There is a curious paradox in spiritual practice. On the one hand, awakening and progress in consciousness happens through grace, through the hand of the Divine. Awakening isn’t an experience or something a person does or has – it’s an awakening from the person. There is nothing we can do directly to make it happen. And yet, we are not separate from the Divine. The Divine moves though us to prepare the way and organize circumstances that allow grace to happen. This shows up as the opportunity for good practices, teachers, books, and so forth. As the renowned sage Vasishtha … Continue Reading… →

“The light body” is one of those almost meaningless terms that float around in spiritual circles. While experiencing inner light is very nice, what is it being experienced? And does that really have anything to do with other things you’ve heard? For example, all seven koshas (sheaths) can be experienced as “light bodies.” From the glow of consciousness right up to reflected light from physical bodies, all the sheaths can be perceived with light; from infinite and formless to cloud-like to solid form. Usually by “light body” people are talking about the prana (energy body) or an aura of it. … Continue Reading… →

There is a tendency in spiritual circles to blame things on karma. “It didn’t work out because of my karma.” Or “My karma made this a bad experience.” But this understanding is poor. Karma means action. While action has consequences, we can’t blame everything on that. For example, we can’t expect waiting for something to happen will cause action to take place. If we want results, we have to act. As a friend recently commented, until you’ve done everything you can, you can’t blame lack of results on karma. It’s in God’s hands only after you’ve done all you can. … Continue Reading… →

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 13 Verse 24 Some realize the Self by the Self in the Self through meditation, others through Samkhya yoga, yet others through Karma yoga. Verse 25 Others, however, not knowing thus, sit near Me [Krishna], having heard from others, they also do cross beyond death, devoted to what they have heard. This lays out the Yogas or paths to liberation. The first is Dhyana Yoga, the path of meditation covered in Chapter 6 of the Gita. These days, it is often taught as Raja Yoga or the Royal road. This is why I emphasize an effortless … Continue Reading… →

There can be said to be two trees of life. The first tree is the one most of us know better. It is rooted in the “world of men.” The roots originate in action, born of attachment to its fruits. We act to achieve a desired result. Seems natural, right? Yet by grasping at what we want and avoiding pain, we impede the smooth flow of life. We build a web of unresolved energy that ties us to our past and others around us. It gets much harder to fulfill desires and action often leads to undesired consequences. Our past … Continue Reading… →

We have long lived under the ego-self and its claims of doership. Thoughts and emotions arise naturally from various stimuli and ego calls them mine. “I feel sad,” we say. Or “I’ve been thinking.” In fact, these are simply happening and we’re noticing. Some people like artists culture a deeper sense of being to connect to creativity and intuition. They may speak of the muse or inspiration moving through them. Similarly, spiritual seekers try to culture a deeper sense of being. As their perception refines, they notice that thoughts and emotions simply arise, mostly without their input. As we step … Continue Reading… →

“It doesn’t matter how mistaken other people are functioning. We don’t mind others. We mind what WE do; we mind what WE are; we center ourselves in that infinite potential of divine grace; we live that field of life and let our example be followed by all other people.” — Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Holland, January 12, 2002 By raising ourselves, we raise all beings. Davidya

There’s a curious balance on the spiritual path between being human and being divine, between self-effort and flow. If we do not act, we see no results, no fruit. But if we act with expectation, life is bound to disappoint. Life flows in the whole, not the me. After awakening, there is often a period of winding down the old. We unwind remaining attachments related to expectations and grasping for results. Slowly, we learn to allow and let life be as it is in the various parts of our life. We let go of the ego’s need for control. We step … Continue Reading… →

One idea you run into periodically is that karma has an end. That the enlightenment process causes you to stop producing new karma, roasts the seeds of your backlog, and then you wind down the sprouted seeds. After that there is nothing to drive you back into a human incarnation when your time is done. The end of karma is the end of reincarnation. While we do indeed clean up our past experiential residues, this idea misses a few key things. For one, karma means action or energy. If we are in relative life, we are in the field of … Continue Reading… →

One of the changes people may experience with a major shift in consciousness is in the drivers of life. What used to drive us to action falls away to be replaced by something much deeper. As the Yoga Sutra describe, when we’re ego identified, we’re often motivated by the avoidance of pain and the attachment to pleasure. We seek what a ‘me’ wants and avoid or repress what it doesn’t. However, this is the essence of suffering and is closely related to the wheel of karma. Round and round we go, chasing what is temporary and constantly experiencing it’s loss … Continue Reading… →

Once you take away most of the personal expectations and begin living life “in the flow” of the divine, your life becomes much simpler (typically) and smoother. But life can take some unexpected turns, such as when you’re called to take a direction that you wouldn’t have otherwise or that doesn’t make sense. (or like when the server migration went sideways this week) But as you learn to trust that, you find it typically works out wonderfully. In fact, you can get quite used to things just working out well. This is not to say there won’t be some karma … Continue Reading… →